Bought A Used King Kutter 60" Tiller And It Broke.

[CliffordK]

From the looks of it, I'd say it was 5 or 6 VERY HARD HOURS....

Yeah, looking at the paint, it looks not much better than my 22 year old tiller that I’ve used annually.

The tines still have a lot of yellow paint on them, and from what I can see look relatively square, so the hours are low. Even fresh paint won't hide badly worn tines. The tiller has had some weather damage with more paint loss form rust than actual use.

EXACTLY. No heat discoloration on the parent metal and to obtain a huge weld bead like that, there would be. There is none. Not welded at all.

If painted, then wire brush cleaned, the discoloration would be gone.

How many Horsepower for that tractor/tiller? It looks pretty large.

That joint would naturally be a tough joint to weld. One of the reasons I started stick welding. MORE POWER!!!

First of all, the sleeve should be a very tight fit on the shaft, and everything should be very very straight. Any looseness of the sleeve, or wobble in the shaft would be a weak spot. Is it a through shaft, or just a stub?

However, the large shaft is a huge heat sink. One needs to push a lot of heat into the shaft, then just barely touch the weld to the sleeve to not burn it away.

If the back side of the flange is accessible, I'd probably also weld the back side of the flange to the shaft, and figure out how to shape the other parts to not grind away my weld.

Hopefully that tiller is designed to be repairable, and not just welded into one solid block.

 

[5030]

That joint would naturally be a tough joint to weld. One of the reasons I started stick welding. MORE POWER!!!

Maybe, maybe not. I own a Lincoln engine drive SMAW machine for field work but I much prefer my MIG with solid wire and shielding gas and at over 200 delivered amps, I routinely weld 1/2" thick material. Quicker, much less messy and no sticks needed.

 

[CliffordK]

The issue remains that it needs to be a tight fit of shaft into sleeve. I'd personally like a good press fit. And make sure you have good penetration into the shaft that takes significantly more heat than the sleeve.

A weld failure like that... a couple of days use... should be a warranty claim, but it is doubtful that it would be accepted due to the tiller likely being a couple of years old, and the multiple owners.

Nonetheless, a company needs the ability to track this type of problem. If failures become an issue, then they need to do random spot checks with stress testing components, monitoring new employees, and perhaps cutting welds for analysis.

Or they need a new design.

If you drive a RWD or 4X4 pickup, then the driveshaft should have a similar weld that takes hundreds of HP. However, it should be well balanced, and not subject to the impacts that a tiller takes. The larger the pickup, the larger the drive shaft.

 

[BigBlue1]

You must mean that you put 5-6 hours on it, not that the tiller only has a total of 5-6 hours on it? That thing looks like it is 10 years old.

 

[wirlybird]

You must mean that you put 5-6 hours on it, not that the tiller only has a total of 5-6 hours on it? That thing looks like it is 10 years old.

No, the tiller has 5-6 hours on it. It was purchased new, locally, last fall and I have the paperwork.
Seller showed me where he tilled with it this spring.
I put about 30 minutes on it before it broke.

 

[wirlybird]

The issue remains that it needs to be a tight fit of shaft into sleeve. I'd personally like a good press fit. And make sure you have good penetration into the shaft that takes significantly more heat than the sleeve.

A weld failure like that... a couple of days use... should be a warranty claim, but it is doubtful that it would be accepted due to the tiller likely being a couple of years old, and the multiple owners.

Nonetheless, a company needs the ability to track this type of problem. If failures become an issue, then they need to do random spot checks with stress testing components, monitoring new employees, and perhaps cutting welds for analysis.

Or they need a new design.

If you drive a RWD or 4X4 pickup, then the driveshaft should have a similar weld that takes hundreds of HP. However, it should be well balanced, and not subject to the impacts that a tiller takes. The larger the pickup, the larger the drive shaft.

They are aware of this happening and blame slip clutch adjustment.

 

[BigBlue1]

No, the tiller has 5-6 hours on it. It was purchased new, locally, last fall and I have the paperwork.
Seller showed me where he tilled with it this spring.
I put about 30 minutes on it before it broke.

Wow. I can't fathom how the thing has that much flaking paint and rust if it is less than a year old. Guess I don't store my equipment outside in the weather so I don't have a lot of experience with how fast it could deteriorate, but that looks like it would have taken much longer.

 

[ning]

Yea, my friend is a professional welder with decades of experience (oil & gas sector mainly) and he wasn't surprised by the crap weld. His friend who is a weld inspector was at the shop and said he was surprised it lasted that long (6 hours or so)!
We got it back together best we could but the weld will never break! We do have a slight wobble on the gear but it runs fine. Despite getting the shaft true the weld eventually pulled it slightly. I don't think it will bother anything and the fix was free!

Got pics of the repair?

 

[eddieirvine]

like the others posted if weld broke grind it out all of it and get down to the splined shaft then set up for a good penetration heat and weld it back up, wire welder or stick i like the wire welder the best